Clock
This is a two-train French drum movement clock of eight-day duration, in an ormolu case featuring Chronos, the personification of time, and a cherub on a boat. Chronos wields his scythe, which was the instrument he used to castrate and depose Uranus, his father.
The manufacture of true ormolu uses the process of mercury gilding, or fire gilding. The complex process involved mixing pure gold together with a liquid mercury to form a paste-like amalgam, a dangerous and poisonous process which caused a high mortality rate amongst gilders. This was outlawed in France around 1830 but workshops continued to employ mercury gilding until 1900.
